SL3 Availability

[Adrian92]

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After 4 months of waiting, finally got my SL3 (NL)! Got some nice shoots coming up, can’t wait to use it! 

[thebarnman]

On 7/7/2024 at 7:52 PM, Jim B said:

I’ve had mine since May and it’s working great!

 

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

Nice use of color...interesting cool shadow areas with a neutral toned subject. 

[thebarnman]

On 7/7/2024 at 7:10 PM, Ken Abrahams said:

I believe it's as per the statement released by Leica and it happens when the battery is removed while the camera remains on or in standby modes. Also if the camera shuts down (freezes) and you need to remove battery temporarily to reboot. Also the advice for when  power runs down to such an extent the camera switches off. Another issue I know of is electronic shutter speed 1/16000 does not work in A and P modes. Exposures requiring such a speed will end up severely clipped as the only useable speed for the SL3 is 1/8000 in the modes A and P. I was going mad when out street shooting at 1.4 the other day and just couldn't achieve a good exposure. Ruined my day on the street trying to get my settings right.    

Didn't read the Leica statement but that's quite a lot actually...worse than I originally thought.  I'm sure they'll get it worked out.   

[Olaf_ZG]

With current issues, the camera should not be available at all, till the issue is solved.

[SrMi]

30 minutes ago, Olaf_ZG said:

With current issues, the camera should not be available at all, till the issue is solved.

Isn't the issue easily solved by checking that the camera is turned off before replacing the battery, or are there other issues as well?

[Olaf_ZG]

No it isn’t. A camera is not supposed to loose whole series of images, which where there (people saw them), by popping out a battery.

Leica should write files to disks and then not overwrite them or loose them.

popping out a battery before turning off, may only result in losing not saved images, but then, you couldn’t preview them anyway.

the problem is not solved. The camera is faulty and a risk for anyone not wanting to miss a moment (as Leica states). This camera has the highest risk of missing moments…

Edited July 10, 2024 by Olaf_ZG
Moments, not memories

[SrMi]

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50 minutes ago, Olaf_ZG said:

No it isn’t. A camera is not supposed to loose whole series of images, which where there (people saw them), by popping out a battery.

Then I misunderstood. I thought the problem occurs only when you remove battery while the camera is on, and you say it happens also when the camera has been turned off. Is that really what you meant with the bolded sentence?

[Jim B]

Do you actually own a SL 3 and have lost files? Or are you just giving opinions based on others experiences (operator errors most likely) because I have had mine since May and have had zero issues, and no lost files at all. None….

[Olaf_ZG]

11 hours ago, Jim B said:

Do you actually own a SL 3 and have lost files? Or are you just giving opinions based on others experiences (operator errors most likely) because I have had mine since May and have had zero issues, and no lost files at all. None….

I don’t own one, but was thinking of one. There are issues, one can’t deny that, so they should be solved before selling more cameras.

[SrMi]

4 hours ago, Olaf_ZG said:

I don’t own one, but was thinking of one. There are issues, one can’t deny that, so they should be solved before selling more cameras.

I am sure all current SL3 owners would have bought the camera even if they knew about the issue since it is preventable.

“The patient says, "Doctor, it hurts when I do this."
The doctor says, "Then don't do that!”

I hope Leica provides a fix ASAP, as we always fear that we may damage images if we accidentally remove the battery while the camera is on.

Edited July 11, 2024 by SrMi

[wizard]

vor 44 Minuten schrieb SrMi:

... if we accidentally remove the battery while the camera is on

By now, anybody using modern electronic devices should know that digital cameras are computers, sort of at least. Nobody using a laptop computer would remove the laptop's battery pack without first shutting down the laptop, since doing so may really screw up things. So why do people think they may remove the battery from a digital camera when the camera is on?

In former days, nobody would have removed the film from a camera before rewinding the film. And if that did happen by accident, well, most if not all images were lost. I do not remember camera users complaining about this situation, personal faults were simply accepted.

Edited July 11, 2024 by wizard

[SrMi]

1 minute ago, wizard said:

By now, anybody using modern electronic devices should know that digital cameras are computers, sort of at least. Nobody using a laptop computer would remove the laptop's battery pack without first shutting down the laptop, since doing so may really screw up things. So why do people think they may remove the battery from a digital camera when the camera is on?

The problem is aggravated by the fact that we do not see instantly whether the camera is asleep or shut down. A shutter half-press is a simple way to check.

[Olaf_ZG]

3 minutes ago, wizard said:

So why do people think they may remove the battery from a digital camera when the camera is on?

Cause they don’t know the camera is on? Or maybe the camera freezes? Or maybe the battery died/went empty?

For most people this won’t happen, however, event shooters might have this risk as some experienced sadly.

[wizard]

vor 15 Minuten schrieb Olaf_ZG:

Cause they don’t know the camera is on?

With film cameras, how did you know the film was rewound or not? You had to check before opening the camera to be sure. So just check whether the camera is on before removing the battery.

 

vor 17 Minuten schrieb Olaf_ZG:

Or maybe the battery died/went empty?

I would assume that the camera shuts down automatically before the battery reaches empty state. At least that is what all cameras I know do, not sure about the SL3, but I would be surprised if the SL3 would not do that.

[SrMi]

For those who did not follow the long "Official Leica Statement: Leica SL3 Issues," here is a good summary from @jonoslack:

 

Edited July 11, 2024 by SrMi

[BernardC]

48 minutes ago, wizard said:

I would assume that the camera shuts down automatically before the battery reaches empty state. At least that is what all cameras I know do, not sure about the SL3, but I would be surprised if the SL3 would not do that.

All devices with lithium cells do that. Lithium cells suffer permanent damage if the voltage gets too low (somewhere below 3V), so devices shut-down automatically before that. It doesn't seem to be a problem with the SL3. I'm sure that some users have had it shut-off due to low voltage, but they haven't mentioned missing images.

We really haven't heard mention of the SL3 freezing either. Surely it's something that could happen, but people would mention it here if it was an issue (especially after the M11 freeze problem).

[jonoslack]

53 minutes ago, BernardC said:

All devices with lithium cells do that. Lithium cells suffer permanent damage if the voltage gets too low (somewhere below 3V), so devices shut-down automatically before that. It doesn't seem to be a problem with the SL3. I'm sure that some users have had it shut-off due to low voltage, but they haven't mentioned missing images.

We really haven't heard mention of the SL3 freezing either. Surely it's something that could happen, but people would mention it here if it was an issue (especially after the M11 freeze problem).

Exactly Bernard - I think that if you wait for the camera to shut itself down it's fine - perhaps unfortunately it says "battery exhausted" or words to that extent, and that's the point where, especially in a rush, it's tempting just to pop the battery.

I guess it might be possible for the SL3 to freeze, but it's never frozen on me, and I can't remember anyone reporting a freeze on the beta tests either.

all the best

[tom0511]

I am not happy about the file issue but I would have bought my SL3 anyways. I know a way to work around and the problem hasn't occurred to me.

I hope it will be solved soon though. Over time available has become better anyways.

 

[thebarnman]

This is interesting.  I would have thought after photographing something that image files would be written to the memory card and therefore saved...even if the battery was taken out while the camera is still on.  If the image file is in some sort of RAM and not written to the card then yes, I can see a problem there.  BUT, after reading everything in this forum, the issues is not lost files, it's "previously saved images being overwritten" which to me is a totally different matter.  Still you don't have original images that were shot but they were never lost...just overwritten.  

Also from what I understand, it seems this was not an issue with the original software at the time of the SL3's release, but is now with a new firmware update and that a update will fix the issue.   

Edited July 11, 2024 by thebarnman

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[hoolyproductions]

Has anyone recieved their SL3 from a third party EU dealer yet? (meaning not an official Leica store)

I'm still waiting for mine, but I've noticed that the camera starts to be often avaialble for immediate purchase on several Leica Stores (e.g. Vienna, Manchester) - so availability is improving.

With hindsight if I'd known it would take this long I would have sold my SL2 on ebay rather than trading it in with a third party dealer and waiting (but they gave me a pretty good trade-in deal so maybe it is worth it after all). Hopefully soon 😇